MORRIS PLAINS — According to Virginia Dyer Vogt and Daniel Myers, writing in “Images of America: Morris Plains,” Alan Florin is shown in this photo from the 1940s trying out a soap box car built at his father’s Gulf service station on Speedwell Avenue near Five Corners in Morris Plains.

The annual All-American Soap Box Derby race week activities begin today in Akron, Ohio, culminating in the finals July 27. According to the national race’s website aasbd.org, Myron Scott, a photographer for the Dayton Daily News, put together an impromptu race for 19 boys in 1933. There was so much interest that Scott arranged a bigger race with prize money. “An amazing crowd of 362 kids showed up,” said Scott, “with homemade cars built of orange crates, sheet tin, wagon and baby-buggy wheels.”

Kits for making soap box racers have been available since 1976. Current soap box racers participating in the Masters Division build cars from high-tech kits that include a fiberglass body and cost $600 or more.

If you would like to share a photo that provides a glimpse of history in your community, please call (973) 392-5950 or send an e-mail to morris@starledger.com.